Racism, Anti-Racism, and the Academic Disciplines: What is to be done?


 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion     May 26 2021 | 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Zoom

Register here.

Like law enforcement, health care, urban planning, finance, and other modern sites of regulation, the academic disciplines have played a foundational role in the elaboration of white supremacy. The legacies of Eugenics, IQ testing, and a broad range of hereditarian logics of valorization and disposability continue to press upon the academic disciplines today. Celebrations of “racial colorblindness,” race neutrality, and even diversity have not displaced these inheritances. These traditions shape research designs in sociology and political science. They constitute the interpretive practices and organization of art history, literary studies, musicology and other humanistic fields. They influence the periodization and privileged regions of study within history, geography, and anthropology. They shape the trajectory of biomedical research, and the organization of subfields and research paradigms in psychology and economics. Yet an important body of scholarship and critique, evident in the work of figures including W.E.B. DuBois, Toni Morrison, Dorothy Roberts, Edward Said, Kimberle Crenshaw, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Charles Mills and many others, have contested these traditions, and reimagined the production of knowledge outside of these parochial constraints.

Featured speaker:
  • Daniel Martinez Hosang, associate professor of ethnicity, rave and migration, American studies, and political science, Yale University
This event is co-sponsored by the UCI DECADE Councils for the School of Humanities, School of Social Ecology, and School of Social Sciences, as well as the Offices of the Equity Advisor for the School of Humanities and School of Social Sciences. Pre-registration is required for this event. A Zoom link will be provided for confirmed registrants. Live captioning will be provided. This webinar will be recorded for educational purposes. To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, or for further information, please email the DECADE Council for the School of Social Sciences, decadesocialsciences@uci.edu